Friday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about a survivor of the Sandy Hook massacre who made a video since she also had to escape the recent mass shooting at MSU; she spent so much time crouching that she ended up with a disk fracture in her back...just chalk it up to Life In These United States (and when it comes to this, well, it's funny in a way that I’m hearing nothing but crickets from Cancun Cruz, Abbott, etc., though the TX senator is all over the place on the bird app calling out Biden, Buttigieg and the Dems for the East Palestine, OH rail disaster)...



...and speaking of the terrible chemical spill in Ohio, here is more from Ana and Cenk, who dole out blame to both sides in the deserved measure IMO; an EPA expert says that “we basically nuked” East Palestine, Ohio (referring to the controlled burn after the spill – more here...and this isn’t surprising, is it...Norfolk Southern are a bunch of damn cowards)...



...and on the Ohio rail disaster and pretty much everything else, Chris Hayes tells us that the “party of Lincoln” has really nothing to add in the way of an actual policy response except performative nonsense...



...additionally, Kyle Kulinski tells us about a Fortune Magazine article which tells us that 37 percent of workers polled by the magazine work more than one full time job – witness the miracle of our economy (removing my tongue from my cheek – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I have a feeling that many of the employees for “the happiest place on earth” fall into the “working two jobs” category; this More Perfect Union video tells us about Disneyworld workers standing up for more money (“if we are the magic, we deserve to be paid” indeed)...



Update 2/22/23: As usual, Bernie is all over this (here).

...and I neglected to note the passing of Robbie Bachman of BTO last month; he would have been 70 on 2/18 – RIP.

Wednesday Stuff

John and Trae Crowder of The Damage Report discuss the latest Trumpian insanity about group firing squads and bringing back the guillotine, or whatever that madness was...wonder if Our Gelatinous Orange Treason-sickle of a former preznit realizes that the legal walls are closing in on him at loooong last and he’s losing what’s left of his mind...



...and I thought Rachel Maddow did us yet another service in this clip, linking authoritarianism in Israel under our “ally” Bibi (trying to overturn the courts) and that encouraged by Our Ochre Abomination; I wish she were on more than one night a week, but she’s definitely earned the right to call her shots in this manner...



Update 2/16/23: More here.

...and Farron Cousins tells us that the GOP “establishment” thinks they can fix their party by purging Orange You-Know-Who, and Cousins tells us why that metaphorical genie is definitely out of the bottle and not going back anytime soon, if ever (one of the best commentaries I’ve heard on the “Republic” Party in quite a while...and happy birthday to Cousins)...



...and while I don’t think we have to worry about Tommy Tuberville of Alabama trying to supplant Trump, #DeathSantis or anyone else in that party running for the oval office in ’24, he still needs to be called out when he spouts outrageous partisan BS as he does here on abortion of course (and as Alonzo Bodden points out, “abortion after birth” isn’t actually a thing - makes me recall this)...



...and yes, I know I’ve been beating the drum a bit about the “GOP” trying to gut Social Security and Medicare, and I’m going to keep doing that because these thoroughly cretinous lunatics are going to keep coming after them...with that in mind, I give you this from The Lincoln Project...



...and I probably should have included this yesterday, but better late than never I guess.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us about Wyoming Republicans opposing a bill banning child marriage (more here)...yeah, tell me once more how we’re NOT supposed to think of Not Your Father’s Republican Party as the American Taliban...



...and I’ll admit that it’s hard for me to revisit the recent Super Bowl (I mean, the Chiefs won because they made more plays when they had to than the Birds, though the Philly team did have a great year and I don’t think anybody should forget that...and I DEFINITELY hope that officiating crew gets the treatment they deserve when they come to the Linc next year, and you KNOW that will happen)...that being said, this video from Rick Strom of TYT tells us about the “He Gets Us” ad that ran during the game and the RWNJs behind it, including this Jason Vanderground person, the president of something called HAVEN (more here, here and here)...



Update 2/16/23: Yeah, I think this is about right.

...and David Doel brings us a pretty detailed report on what led up to the East Palestine, Ohio chemical rail derailment...kudos to David Sirota for solid reporting (I question his punditry, but not his journalism)...and yeah, more BS with some mega-company (Norfolk Southern) laying off workers and instituting a stock buyback program, making billions in the process – and by the way, they also lobbied Republican politicians to gut an Obama safety rule about using a brake system that likely would have prevented this disaster, but yeah, to be fair, there’s more “Mayor Pete” needs to do here also (and stuff he and his boss should have done already, actually...definitely a bipartisan failure here, but as usual, the out-and-out corruption is from the “R” side, and the incompetence is from the “D” side)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about the fight to restore Net Neutrality...sounds like we’re a vote away from restoring it, in the person of Gigi Sohn and her nomination to the FCC (NSFW/H), with the wingnuts linking Sohn to opposing FOSTA - SESTA and allegedly supporting human trafficking and sex trafficking, which is total BS as per usual (and you can tell Sohn has become a wingnut bete noire because she’s opposed by Cancun Cruz among others, as noted here)...



...and I have to admit that I always wondered about the origin of the whole “kitty litter in high schools” BS shoveled by RoJo among others, and in this clip I actually learned the true origin of all of the ridiculous screeching...it didn’t occur to me that, when school kids are trapped in an active shooter situation, they would need the means to relieve themselves if they had to and schools have prepared for that, which is smart...as usual, those complaining the loudest want to focus on this childish propaganda and NOT DO A DAMN THING ABOUT THE F*CKING GUNS! instead...Brett Erlich tells us about that as part of the “boomer mill” (along with that cretin Don Bolduc of New Hampshire, who lost his election thank God)...



...and I hope everybody managed to have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Monday Stuff

Ana of TYT tells us that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is trying to squelch an FTC rule banning non-compete agreements, with those agreements negatively impacting workers in all kinds of industries, especially when they have to re-enter the job market as many do now...and yeah, it’s more than a bit of a “tell” that our corporate media is siding with the COC (OF COUURRSE! as Cenk would say)...



...and John of The Damage Report speaks with Dave Levinthal of Raw Story on politicians running for election or re-election whose campaigns were raided by criminals, including Repug Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who lost almost $700 grand; Biden lost about $70K as well...not sure exactly if there’s a ”magic bullet” to solve a problem like that...



...and speaking of thievery, this More Perfect Union video discusses credit card late fees charged against about 42 million in this country, to the tune of billions (and Biden mentioned in the SOTU that he’s trying to bring the fee down from $31 to $8, and the video tells us how we can submit comments online to encourage that)...



...and when it comes to corporations pulling the puppet strings of their politicians, Farron Cousins mentions 40 Repug senators who filed an amicus brief to the SCOTUS to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness program...



...and Jeff Waldorf may not be the most charismatic individual out there, but I think he has some generally good commentaries, including this one about Elon The Great firing an engineer because Our Lord God King Guru of the bird app has falling engagement numbers (more here...and the “3AM Catturd call,” huh? Yeah, I believe it...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of birds, yeah, it totally sucks that the Eagles came up short in the Super Bowl (though you can’t blame Jalen Hurts as far as I’m concerned - 35 points should have been enough), and I don’t know what was going on with the defense in the second half, but you have to give credit to Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City for coming back...that imaginary holding call on James Bradberry towards the end was ridiculous, but the Eagles shouldn’t have been in a position where it mattered...oh well, I guess this tune will suffice for now (the Birds had a great year otherwise, though, and should be congratulated for that).